U.S. District Court Judge David Doty
has granted a motion by the NFLPA to hold a hearing next week on whether to
unseal some of the documents in the union's case challenging the NFL’s use
of television rights money. The NFLPA argued that the NFL players and public
have a right to the information and Doty scheduled a hearing for Feb. 24 in
federal court in Minneapolis,
the same day oral arguments will be held on the union’s appeal of the Special
Master’s decision in the case.

The Special Master awarded the NFLPA
about $6M in damages in the case, but did not grant the union the injunction
it was seeking to stop the NFL from receiving more than $4B in television
revenues that would be paid whether or not games are played. The case is of
great interest to the sports industry, but the hearing before the Special
Master was closed and the documents have been sealed.

The NFL in a statement said, “We advised
the union prior to its filing that we are amenable to submitting a public
version of the union's brief and the Special Master's opinion as long as certain
commercially sensitive information of our network television and other business
partners remains confidential as required under the protective order governing
this litigation.”

The NFLPA said it was not seeking to
unseal any information about the NFL’s television partners’ proprietary business
information. “Moreover, this motion does not seek to cause the disclosure
of any third party information (e.g., information produced by DirecTV, CBS,
Fox, NBC, ESPN) pursuant to the stipulated protective
orders governing such information,” the NFLPA said in its papers. Sensitive
information about the networks’ business has been redacted and the NFLPA is
seeking to make public the unredacted portions of
the case.

The NFLPA alleged in the case that
the NFL violated the CBA by making a deal with TV networks that did not maximize
revenues that are shared by the players and the league, as required by the
CBA and the Stipulation and Settlement Agreement (SSA) of the Reggie White
v. NFL case.

The NFLPA in court papers said that
the information it is seeking to have unsealed “describe the NFL’s development,
implementation and execution of its plan to use the shared SSA revenues through
the TV contracts to finance a 2011 lockout that, in turn, would be used as
immediate and overwhelming bargaining leverage against the players.”

The NFLPA said in court papers that
there is nothing in the unredacted documents “that
can overcome the strong public policy against secrecy in the federal court
proceedings. … The NFLPA (has) an institutional interest
in communicating with NFL players to inform them about efforts to vindicate
[their] rights under the SSA and CBA. This is especially important
because the NFL has made several extremely inaccurate public statements about
this proceeding to divide players from their representatives, and to persuade
players not to pursue their legal rights.”

The NFLPA in its motion cited public
statements made by Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, including a statement
on BostonHerald.com in which he said, “Remember, when the players union lost
its case, which was a bogus case to begin with, I had to give a deposition.
They collected $15 million in fees that the players paid, think about that!”

The NFLPA’s motion said, “It is highly misleading and very troubling
to NFL players that Mr. Kraft could make such public proclamations in a case
in which he knows the NFL was found guilty of two SSA violations that the
NFL is not even challenging on appeal.”